VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Thousands of Virginia Beach residents have three days to pay their water bills or experience disconnections.
The city temporarily stopped payment deadlines due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, city leaders said it's time to get back to business as usual.
The City of Virginia Beach is days away from starting to turn off residents' water if they haven’t paid their water bills.
“On Monday we’re resuming service disconnections for delinquent accounts and they’ve really been suspended for well over a year now with the COVID-19 pandemic," said Virginia Beach Public Utilities Director Bob Montague.
Montague said thousands of customers -- including both homeowners and commercial business owners -- need to pay.
“A total of 8,000 to 9,000 that are immediately eligible for cut-offs. But we have about 13,000 thousand that are past due," said Montague.
The Virginia Beach Bill Pandemic Relief program is closed, but Montague said the city is offering payment plans.
“We are offering extended payment plans which enable our customers to spread payments for their delinquent balances up to two years," he said.
Montague said Virginia Beach has millions of dollars from the VA State Coronavirus Utility Relief funding. People can still apply for this program until November 1, 2021.
“We have a little over $2 million in funding assistance that’s available for our customers. It helps to cover the water and sewer charges on their bill," said Montague.
He wants people who haven’t paid to call public utilities or walk in to work out a plan.
“To be proactive, to take advantage of the payment assistance or extension options that are available to them and avoid service disruption. That’s what we want," said Montague.
The City of Virginia Beach has helped 5,405 accounts and covering 35,657 bills with the CARES ACT funding so far. The average amount of relief given per account is $420 and the city has approximately used $2.26 million from CARES Act money so far.